Robert W. Chambers

“ And there, on guard, sat Trooper Stormont, rigid, unstirring, hour after hour, facing the first great passion of his life, and stunned by the impact of its swift and unexpected blow.
In her chamber, on the bed's edge, sat Eve Strayer, her deep eyes fixed on space. Vague emotions, exquisitely recurrent, new born, possessed her. The whole world, too, all around her seemed to have become misty and golden and all pulsating with a faint, still rhythm that indefinably thrilled her pulses to response.
Passion, full-armed, springs flaming from the heart of man. Woman is slow to burn. ”

“ Men of the wilderness knew how to take dangerous creatures alive. To take a dangerous and reasoning human was even less difficult, because reason makes more mistakes than does instinct.
Stealthily, without a sound, the girl crept back through the shadows over the damp pine needles, until, peering fearfully over her shoulder, she saw the last ghost-tint of Quintana's fire die out in the terrific dark behind.
Slowly, still, she moved until her sensitive feet felt the trodden path from Drowned Valley.
Now, with torch flaring, she ran, carrying her rifle at a trail. ”

“ There was no game here, no water, nothing to attract anybody except the devastating lumberman. But this was a five thousand acre patch of State land. The ugly whine of the steam-saw would never be heard here.
On he walked at an easy, swinging stride, flashing his torch rarely, feeling no concern about discovery by Quintana's people.
It was only when he came into the hardwoods that the combined necessity for caution and torch perplexed and worried him.
Somewhere in here began an outcrop of rock running east for miles. Only stunted cedar and berry bushes found shallow nourishment on this ridge. ”

“ But whether in Quintana's direction or no Sard could not tell. He was no woodsman. He was completely turned around.
He looked upward through a dense yellow foliage, but all was grey in the sky — very grey and still; — and there seemed to be no traces of the sun that had been shining.
He looked fearfully around; trees, trees, and more trees. No break, no glimmer, nothing to guide him, teach him. He could see, perhaps, fifty feet; no further.
In panic he started to move on. That is what fright invariably does to those ignorant of the forest. Terror starts them moving. ”

“ Clinch, in his shirt-sleeves, carrying a rifle, came out on the log veranda and sat down to think it over.
He began to realise that he was likely to have trouble with a man as cold-blooded and as dogged as himself.
Nor did he doubt that those with Quintana were desperate men.
On whom could he count? On nobody unless he paid their hire. None among the lawless men who haunted his backwoods "hotel" at Star Pond would lift a finger to help him. Almost any among them would have robbed him, — murdered him, probably, — if it were known that the jewels were hidden in the house. ”

“ His pistol flew from his hand, struck Smith's leg; and Smith had it at the same instant and turned it like lightning on the murderous shadows.
"Hands up! Quick!" he cried, at bay now, and his back to the sink-hole.
Pistol levelled, he bent one knee, pushed Clinch over on his back, lest the ooze suffocate him.
"Now," he said coolly, "what do you bums want of Mike Clinch?"
"Who are you?" came a sullen voice. "This is none o' your bloody business. We want Clinch, not you."
"What do you want of Clinch?"
"Take your gun off us!"
"Answer, or I'll let go at you. What do you want of Clinch?"
"Money. ”

“ Always, as Leverett crept on, pulling the dead behind him, the floor of the woods trembled slightly, and a black ooze wet the crust of withered leaves.
At the quaking edge of a little pool of water, Leverett halted. The water was dark but scarcely an inch deep over its black bed of silt.
Beside this sink hole the trap-thief dropped Kloon. Then he drew his hunting knife and cut a tall, slim swamp maple. The sapling was about twenty feet in height. Leverett thrust the butt of it into the pool. Without any effort he pushed the entire sapling out of sight in the depthless silt. ”

“ As Quintana continued his encircling manoeuvres Eve, apparently perplexed, walked out into the clear space, putting the concealed trap between her and Quintana, who now came stealthily toward her from the rear.
It was evident that he had reconnoitred sufficiently to satisfy himself that the girl was alone and that no trick, no ambuscade, threatened him.
And now, from behind a pine, and startlingly near her, came Quintana, moving with a confident grace yet holding his rifle ready for any emergency.
Eve's horrified stare was natural; she had not realised that any man could wear so evil a smile. ”

“ It was God's mercy that he was not lying where Salzar lay, ten feet — twenty — a hundred deep, perhaps — in immemorial slime——
He shook himself in his saddle as though to be rid of the creeping horror, and wiped his clammy face.
Now, in the false dawn, a blue-jay awoke somewhere among the oaks and filled the misty silence with harsh grace-notes.
Then reaction, setting in like a tide, stirred more sombre depths in the heart of this young man.
He thought of Riga; and of the Red Terror; of murder at noon-day, and outrage by night. ”

“ And, in the sunshine, it all quickly turned to dew, and glittered and sparkled in a million hues and tints like gems — like that handful of jewels she had poured into her father's joined palms — yesterday — there at the ghostly edge of Drowned Valley.
At the memory, and quite mechanically, she turned in her char and drew
Quintana's basket pack toward her.
First she lifted out his rifle, examined it, set it against the window sill. Then, one by one, she drew out two pistols, loaded; the murderous Spanish clasp-knife; an axe; a fry-pan and a tin pail, and the rolled-up mackinaw. ”

“ En masse, the gang were too distrustful of one another to unite on robbing any individual. But any individual might easily rob a companion when alone with him.
"Why — why can't we all go together," he stammered. "It is safer, surer——"
"I go with Quintana and you," interrupted Georgiades, smilingly; his mind on the diamond in the muzzle of Quintana's pistol.
"I do not invite you," said Quintana. "But come if it pleases you."
"I also prefer to come with you others," growled Sanchez. "To roam alone in this filthy forest does not suit me." ”

“ In a moment only a vague heaving came from the unseen ooze.
Smith, exhausted, drenched with sweat, leaned against a tamarack, sickened.
After all sound had ceased he straightened up with an effort. Presently he bent and recovered Salzar's red bandana and his hat, lifted his own rifle and pack and struggled into the harness. Then, kicking Salzar's rifle overboard, he unfastened both torches, pocketed one, and started on in a flood of ghostly light.
He was shaking all over and the torch quivered in his hand. He had seen men die in the Great War. He had been near death himself. ”

“ And at the same instant she saw him struggling with three masked men in the glare of the wagon-shed afire.
His rifle stood in the corridor outside her door. With one bound she was on the stairs again. There came the crash and splinter of wood and glass from the kitchen, and a man with a handkerchief over his face caught her on the landing.
Twice she wrenched herself loose and her fingers almost touched Stormont's rifle; she fought like a cornered lynx, tore the handkerchief from her assailant's face, recognised Quintana, hurled her very body at him, eyes flaming, small teeth bared. ”

“ Then, of a sudden, a shaft of flame played over the forest. The sun had risen.
Hastening, she searched the soft path for any imprint of her father's foot. And even in the vain search she hoped to find him at home—hurried on burdened with two rifles and a pack, still all nervous and aquiver from her encounter with Quintana.
Surely, surely, she thought, if he had missed Quintana in Drowned Valley he would not linger in that ghastly place; he'd come home, call in his men, take counsel perhaps——
Mist over Star Pond was dissolving to a golden powder in the blinding glory of the sun. ”

“ Together they lifted the heavy tile and laid it on the floor.
"You open thees door!" shouted Quintana in a paroxysm of fury. "I give you one minute! Then, by God, I kill you both!"
Eve lifted a screen of wood through which the tile had been set. Under it a black hole yawned. It was a tunnel made of three-foot aqueduct tiles; and it led straight into star Pond, two hundred feet away.
Now, as she straightened up and looked silently at Stormont, they heard the trample of boots in the kitchen, voices, the bang of gun-stocks.
"Does that drain lead into the lake?" whispered Stormont. ”

“ Then, in total darkness, he pocketed the torch, slid a cartridge into the breech of is rifle, slung the weapon, pulled out a handkerchief, and tied it across his face under the eyes.
Now, he drew the torch from his pocket, levelled it, sent three quick flashes, out into the darkness.
Instantly, close ahead, three blinding flashes broke out.
For Hal Smith it had all become a question of seconds.
Death lay depthless on either hand; ahead death blocked the trail in silence.
Out of the dark some unseen rifle might vomit death in his very face at any moment. ”

“ They were still a mile distant from the most southern edge of that vast desolation, but already tamaracks appeared in the beauty of their burnt gold; little pools glimmered here and there; patches of amber sphagnum and crimson pitcher-plants became frequent; and once or twice Kloon's big boots broke through the crust of fallen leaves, soaking him to the ankles with black silt.
Leverett, always a coward, had pursued his devious and larcenous way through the world, always in deadly fear of sink holes.
His movements and paths were those of a weasel, preferring always solid ground ”

“ From the time he had poked a pistol against Sard's fat paunch, to this bullet-pelted ride for life, life had become one ridiculously exciting episode after another.
He had come through like the hero in a best-seller.... Lacking only a heroine.... If there had been any heroine it was Eve Strayer. Drama had gone wrong in that detail.... So perhaps, after all, it was real life he had been living and not drama. Drama, for the masses, must have a definite beginning and ending. Real life lacks the latter. In life nothing is finished. ”

“ Darragh gazed at her, astounded; took the hand she stretched out to him; held it with a silly expression on his features.
"Hal Smith," she said with perceptible emotion, "I take back what I once said to you on Owl Marsh. No man is a real crook by nature who did what you have done. That is 'faithfulness unto death'—the supreme offer—loyalty——"
Her voice broke; she pressed Darragh's hand convulsively and her lip quivered.
Darragh, with the morocco case full of jewels buttoned into his hip pocket, stood motionless, mutely swallowing his amazement. ”

“ Eve's tread was light on the moist trail; her quick eyes missed nothing—not the dainty imprint of deer, fresh made, nor the sprawling insignia of rambling raccoons—nor the big barred owl huddled on a pine limb overhead, nor, where the swift gravelly reaches of the brook caught sunlight, did she miss the swirl and furrowing and milling of painted trout on the spawning beds. ”

“ Their smart drab uniforms touched with purple blended harmoniously with the autumn woods. They were as inconspicuous as two deer in the dappled shadow. There was a sunny clearing just ahead. The wood road they had been travelling entered it. Beyond lay Star Pond.
Trooper Lannis said to Trooper Stormont: "That's Mike Clinch's clearing. Our man may be there. Now we'll see if anybody tips him off this time."
Forest and clearing were very still in the sunshine. Nothing stirred save gold leaves drifting down, and a hawk high in the deep blue sky turning in narrow circles. ”

“ Presently she found herself in a steep, wet deer-trail rising upward through a gully. She knew that runway. It led up Star Peak.
Behind her as she climbed she heard the slopping, panting tread of men; her wind was better than theirs; she climbed lithely upward, setting a pace which finally resulted in a violent jerk backward, — a savage, wordless admonition to go more slowly.
As she climbed she wondered whether she should have fired an alarm shot on the chance of the State Trooper, Stormont, hearing it. ”

“ In his distress and overwhelming mortification, Darragh stood miserable, mute, irresolute.
Stormont seemed to understand: "What you did, Jim, was well meant," he said. "I understand. Eve will understand when I tell her. But that fellow Quintana is a devil. You can't draw a herring across any trail he follows. I tell you, Jim, this fellow Quintana is either blood-mad or just plain crazy. Somebody will have to put him out of the way. ”

“ But the kerosene lamp cast two shadows on that—tall shadows of human shapes that stirred at times.
The trap-robber, scared, stiffened to immobility, but his little eyes remained fastened on the camera obscura above. All the cunning, patience, and murderous immobility of the rat were his.
Not a weed stirred under the stars where he lay with tiny, unwinking eyes intent upon the shadows on the ceiling.
The shadows on the ceiling were cast by Eve Strayer and her State Trooper. ”

“ But nowhere could she discover any impression resembling her step-father's, — that great, firm stride and solid imprint which so often she had tracked through moss and swale and which she knew so well.
Once when she got up from her knees after close examination of the muddy trail, she became aware of the slightest taint in the night air — stood with delicate nostrils quivering — advanced, still conscious of the taint, listening, wary, every stealthy instinct alert.
She had not been mistaken: somewhere in the forest there was smoke. Somewhere a fire was burning. It might not be very far away ”

“ Always he had dreamed of the day when, through some sudden bold and savage stroke, he could deliver himself from a life of fear and live in a city, grossly, replete with the pleasures of satiation, never again to see a tree or a lonely lake or the blue peaks which, always, he had hated because they seemed to spy on him from their sky-blue heights. ”

“ For, in that amazing courtship of a single day, he never dreamed that he had won the heart of that sad, white-faced, hungry child in rags — silken tatters still stained with the blood of massacre, — the very soles of her shoes still charred by the embers of her own home.
Yes, that is what must have happened in a single day and evening. Life passes swiftly during such periods. Minutes lengthen into days; hours into years. The soul finds itself. ”

“ In the intense stillness Clinch glared into one face after another.
"Boys," he said in his softly modulated voice, "I kinda guess there's a rat amongst us. I wouldn't like for to be that there rat—no, not for a billion hundred dollars. No, I wouldn't. Becuz that there rat has bit my little girlie, Eve,—like that there deer bit her up onto Star Peak.... No, I wouldn't like for to be that there rat. Fer he's a-goin' to die like a rat, same's that there deer is a-goin' to die like a deer.... Anyone seen which way Jake Kloon went?" ”